Effect of content and language integrated learning on the development of English language skills at the upper primary stage

Abstract

India is a land of diversity, and this diversity is present in almost every element that newlineconglomerates to create everything Indian in essence. Language being one of them. As a newlinemultilingual society, India is home to many languages and regional dialects. As per the newlineConstitution of India under Article 343 (i), 22 languages have been recognized as the scheduled newlinelanguages. Hindi and English have been recognized as the official languages but on and off newlineEnglish bears the brunt of being a foreign language. Ever since the Colonial times, English has newlineserved as medium of instruction, and this trend almost concretized after the implementation of newlineNational Education Policy of 1968. As the Indian society moved towards global integration, newlineEnglish medium education became more and more prevalent. Soon, it became people s newlineaspiration (Meganathan, 2020), it became a general consensus that English would help Indians newlineto move upwards in the social ladder. It has played a very important role in the economic newlinedevelopment of India and even helped in the decolonization process (Vaish, 2005), but still it newlinehas always been assessed critically and accused of hampering the growth and development of newlineother Indian languages. Indeed it helped us during the times of liberalization, privatization, and newlineglobalization. Considering all these facts, more and more English medium schools newlinemushroomed in every nook and corner of India. In almost every government run school, newlineEnglish began to be taught as the second language; but even then, a majority of Indian students newlinewho have studied or are studying English for a decade during their school days struggle to newlinecommunicate in the lingua franca. Why? This research study aims to answer this important newlinequestion.